This headline says it all…Handy Randy Disgraced Prince Andrew has become the Queen's 'rock' during Megxit, royal insiders have revealed. 
This is embarrassing. Shame on the UK Sun and the Royal Family for using the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as an opportunity to shed some positive media coverage around Prince Andrew.

Prince Andrew knowingly associated with a convicted pedophile. He expressed no remorse for this association nor did he offer any sympathy to the victims. AND, the Prince is allegedly accused of having sex with an underage girl three times. Now, I have to ask… why on earth are we reading sympathetic newspaper coverage for this man?

Here’s a couple of my favourite lines from the article and I’ve underlined the backhanded slaps that writer Dan Wooten has managed to slide in at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s expense. 

• The Duke is said to have been a “tower of strength” behind the scenes in the last two weeks and has been supporting his parents in their hour of need. 
• Such an interesting choice of phrasing, “in their hour of need.” I’d like to know…how the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announcement that, “they intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen,” would be considered more detrimental to the monarchy than Prince Andrew being implicated in underage human trafficking?!
• If he (Prince Andrew) hadn’t made such a dreadful mistake, he would now be a leading senior royal helping the Queen and stepping into many of the causes and patronages that Harry and Meghan will probably abandon.“But as things stand, he can only take a backseat role.”
• Interesting…"will probably abandon," now that’s a backhand at Harry and Meghan if I ever read one. It’s a good thing Prince Andrew is SOOOO helpful and, I would say his association with a pedophile is more than a 'dreadful mistake.' Come on?!

The ONLY information I want to read about Prince Andrew is that he is cooperating with the FBI in their investigation. I don’t care that Prince Andrew attends church with his mother. I don’t care that he’s “immensely loyal.” I don’t care that he’s a “team player" because he was in Navy. This is embarrassing.

​Can someone please explain to me how Prince Harry and Meghan Markle asking for independence and privacy is more scandalous than Prince Andrew associating with a pedophile? It's a good thing the British media insists that their coverage of the Sussex's has been fair. ​

​ I wanted to kick the new year off with a 'positive' post because I love the start of a new year. To me, it's a fresh start and an opportunity to get it together. So on January 1, I always write down my goals for the upcoming year because I believe if they are written down they are more likely to happen. I will confess, many of the goals are the same...healthy mind and healthy body. But, some are new such as publish a travel article and I find this is exciting.

But before I sat down to compose a resolution post, I logged into Facebook because I wanted to send my cousin birthday greetings. Of course, I was easily diverted to my friends posts and one in particular grabbed my attention. When I was in India, I had the pleasure of meeting a fantastic women from Australia and her post broke my heart.

I have been losing sleep (seriously) over the wildfires that are currently blazing in Australia. Any time there is a fire, my thoughts rest with all who are impacted--this includes the animals. Especially the animals. This is why her post hit me so hard. She posted about the impact on the animals and how many are so burned they cannot be saved. One of her friends commented about people who had returned to homes beside the national parks and they can hear the cries of the injured animals from inside the park. 

​I can't even write about the animals crying without bursting into tears. The suffering is unimaginable. Summer is just beginning in Australia and here's the damage thus far:

• About 2,700 firefighters were battling the blazes as of Sunday, Jan. 5
• Three have been killed.
• The Australia Defense Force said Sunday it had called 3,000 army reserve forces and others with specialist capabilities to help fight the flames.
• There were about 136 fires burning across New South Wales (NWS) today.
• Of those, 69 are not contained, the NSW Rural Fire Service said Monday.
• Officials say 24 people have died nationwide this fire season.
• About 480 million animals have died across NSW, professor Chris Dickman with the University of Sydney, estimates. "The true mortality is likely to be substantially higher than those estimated," the university said in a statement.
• Almost a third of koalas in NSW may have been killed in the fires, and a third of their habitat has been destroyed, said Federal Environment Minister Susan Ley.
• In December, the smoke in Sydney was so bad that air quality measured 11 times the "hazardous" level.
• ​In total, more than 14.7 million acres have been burned across the country's six states. That's larger than the countries of Belgium and Haiti combined.
• There have been more than 1,300 houses destroyed and 8.9 million acres scorched.

I know there are many who do not believe in global warming and protecting the environment is more often than not sacrificed in favour of economic progress, although I respect the difference of opinion I cannot understand it. And, I have to ask...How much longer can we continue to ignore our planet? That said, I will be hopeful that as 2020 kicks off we humans will finally get our act together. 

Well...A LOT has changed since my last post. Prince Andrew has catapulted his way into the global headlines thanks to his interview on BBC's Newsnight with Emily Maitlis about his relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffery Epstein.

The Prince had hoped the interview on Saturday, Nov. 16th would clear his name and rehabilitate his reputation. According to the Newsnight, he thought it went well. IT DID NOT GO WELL. The interview was disastrous and it is doubtful that Prince Andrew will ever be able to recover from the fallout.  

Oh my gosh, where to start...

1. Not ONCE during his 50 minute interview did Prince Andrew express any remorse for Epstein's victims. This I would have thought...was a no brainer and given that he had 50 minutes there was ample time to ensure an apology was delivered. Not even a little help from Maitlis could drag an apology from the Prince. She gave him the perfect opportunity, when she ended the interview with..."is there anything you would like to add?" His response, “No…you’ve dragged out most of what is required. I’m grateful for the opportunity.” Seriously?!
2. The Prince referred to Epstein's behaviour as "unbecoming." Really, Prince Andrew that's an understatement. He was a sex offender. A convicted pedophile.  Epstein raped children.
3. It didn't get any better when Maitlis asked the Prince point blank if he regretted his association with Epstein. "The people that I met and the opportunities that I was given to learn, either by him or because of him, were actually very useful." Andrew added, he had, "some seriously beneficial outcomes." Wow...it's all about you Andrew isn't it?
4. One of my personal favourites, was the rationale Andrew gave for staying at Epstein's house in 2010 after his release from  prison. Andrew said, he went to New York to break up with Epstein 'in person' because he is "honourable." And, he stayed with Epstein for 4 days because it was "convenient." BTW...during this interview Prince Andrew also said he didn't know Epstein very very well.
5. Did he notice any suspicious behaviour when he stayed 'multiple' times at Epstein's various residences? Andrew's response, "I live in an institution at Buckingham Palace which has members of staff walking around all the time and I don't wish to appear grand but there were a lot of people who were walking around Jeffrey Epstein's house. As far as I aware, they were staff."  
6. It was no surprise when Prince Andrew said he had never met his accuser Virginia Roberts Guiffre. But what was surprising was when he said that it couldn't have been him because he doesn't sweat and he knows that on the night in question he was at Pizza Express.  I'm not even going to bother going into this nonsense...unbelievable.

Prince Andrew's interview was a PR disaster which no doubt will be studied in PR classes as a 'what not to do' case study for decades to come. Certainly for the Queen, this catastrophic Prince Andrew mess classifies as another 'annus horribilis' for her.

What I will say, is that in the era of  #Metoo I hope the walls that have protected people of power and influence will continue to be pushed down and people will be held accountable for their actions. Unfortunately, because of Jeffery Epstein's 'suicide' he will not be. But there are many individuals who participated and facilitated Epstein's trafficking activities and they should stand trial. I for one, will be watching. 

​I continue to be fascinated—and not in a good way, of the UK’s coverage of Prince Andrew’s questionable connection with convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein. If the papers dedicated as many headlines and real estate to this subject as they did to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s private jet rides than this newsworthy story would have bumped the duo right off the front page--and rightfully so.

In continuing with the crappy coverage, the papers have opted to gloss over another blip in the Prince Andrew’s world. In the wake of the negative coverage, the Prince hired Jason Stein, a communications specialist to help repair and rebuild his image. Stein resigned a month into his new gig. I don’t know about you but the first thing that pops into my head is…geez, that would be a big blow for a Prince who’s trying to recoup his image. You would think that there would be A LOT of follow up on this one.

Especially given that this was what happened to Meghan Markle when multiple members of her staff resigned. Her character was on the line, she was referred to as a ‘horrible boss’ and someone with ‘diva demands.’ The coverage of her staff leaving dominated the front pages as did the attacks on her character. There was not a lot of space dedicated to ‘small’ little details such as positions being temporary or the staff members who adored her.

I googled away and can tell you at the time of this post there is surprisingly little spotlight shone on Prince Andrew’s spin doctor quitting. Just to regroup here…Prince Andrew has been allegedly accused of participating in an orgy with underage girls and, having intimate relations with a 17- year-old on three occasions. Seriously?! His spin-doctor quitting after such a short stint is not newsworthy especially given the background of why he needed to be hired in the first place. Unlike Markle, Prince Andrew has not been graced with a slew of adjectives to describe his character or his behaviour. I for one, can think of some adjectives.

Fortunately, in the UK there are people are coming to Meghan's defense. On October 29th, I was thrilled to see that 72 female British MP’s, from multiple parties signed an open letter in support of Meghan Markle, the letter stated the UK newspapers unfair attacks on Markle violated her privacy and “can only be described as outdated, colonial undertones.” In other words, the articles have racist undertones.  Bravo ladies! Thank you for speaking up and challenging the newspaper’s bad behaviour.  

As for Prince Andrew and his alleged bad behaviour, I am still waiting for the flurry of articles in the UK media that attack his character and thoroughly question his role in the Jeffery Epstein sex trafficking ring. Isn't that what newspapers are supposed to do?

I'll leave you with a video of Amy Robach on the set of 20/20 speaking on hot mic after Epstein's death in July 2019. It was a private conversation that was leaked on Nov 5th. It will be interesting to see how long the powerful forces behind this man of privilege are able to protect him and I'd like to know why Meghan is not given the same consideration. ​

I am all for saving the caribou, but I question the tactic of killing one species to save another. Is this conservation?

It's been almost five years since I signed a petition to stop the wolf cull in B.C. It turned my stomach then, and it turns my stomach even more now as I had hoped the B.C. government would not continue such an inhumane practice. I was wrong.

The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development is proposing to extend the wolf cull; killing 80% of the population in central B.C. 

According to University of Alberta biologist Stan Boutin who has studied caribou herds and predator management there has been some success in stabilizing the herds, since the cull's inception. But...to save the caribou the cull would have to continue for the 'long haul.' "As soon as you stop the cull, wolf numbers come right back up to what they were before, and caribou populations decline again," Boutin said.

I am sorry, this is an unacceptable approach to conservation. I do not understand why wolves are being culled when there has not been any changes to the human activity, which has led to the deterioration of the caribou's natural habitat in the first place. There's still logging, resource extraction, road building...human activity is the root cause of the decline of the caribou NOT wolves yet, this business as usual, comes at the expense of the wolf population. 

In the effort of conservation (ah hum), to date, more than 700 wolves have been killed (unacceptable!). I'd also like to know...Wolves are an integral part of an ecosystem...so what are the repercussions to an ecosystem when one of its species is drastically reduced as this wolf cull extension plan will do? 

Pacific Wild has been working hard to try and save the B.C. wolves. Here's a link to their petition. 
 

Since my return from a cycling vacation, I feel like I have one foot in Morocco and the other, in Canada. To assist myself with the post-vacation slump recovery, I've put together a photo compilation of some of my favourite Morocco moments. I hope you enjoy the pictures and are enticed to explore this absolutely magnificent country.

We cycled with a fabulous group of people; to respect their privacy I have opted to post pictures that do not include close-ups of their lovely faces.

Like anyone who returns from a holiday, I'm filled with mixed emotions although, it's nice to be home--it's quite fabulous to be away on vacation. A vacation for me, means my senses are in overdrive, my brain is buzzing, every day is different, and filled with new friends and meeting the locals. Now that I'm home, I have the luxury to process what 'went down' so to speak and will blog about it in the future. But in the interim, I will keep it short and sweet and mention one of the things I was reminded of while I was away...I wish everyone had the privilege of being able to travel to a foreign country.

Travel is a gift. It opens your mind and heart in a way that cannot be opened unless you're immersed in a world that's different from the one you were raised in. Morocco is one of the most stunning countries I have ever set foot in and the Moroccan people are friendly and kind. THEY ARE LOVELY. Morocco's population is 99% Muslim. 

In today's unfortunate climate of 'them vs us,' travel will show you there is no 'them,' it's 'we.' And, 'we' are all in this world together. I HIGHLY recommend travelling to Morocco, or Central America, or Asia...anywhere that's different from the familiar. I am most grateful to have been able to explore Morocco and so many different pockets of the world.  I can hardly wait for the next adventure.

Now, back to processing. Stay tuned for 'what went down.' 

I am fascinated by​ body language. I am by no means an expert, but look at this picture...I don't know about you, but I can tell you if this was me I would not be thrilled with the old guy's pelvic invasion in my personal space.  It's creepy. 

This picture was taken in 2001, it's Britain's Duke of York with Virginia Roberts. Roberts has since come forward allegedly accusing the Prince of underage sexual trysts. 

Buckingham Palace has "categorically' denied that the Duke of York had "any form of sexual contact or relationship" with Virginia Roberts. But boy, oh boy...this photo is d-a-m-a-g-i-n-g. 

Equally fascinating to me was the response to this very incriminating photo. You guessed it..."the photo was faked." Sources close to the Duke have cast doubt over the authenticity of the photo by claiming the Duke has "chubby" fingers and the person in this photo does not have chubby fingers! You have got to be kidding me?! That's the best you've got--a "chubby finger" defense. P-l-e-a-s-e. 

I'll be watching to see how this rolls out. In the era of  the #metoo movement, will it make a difference? Will the women be believed? Or will the wealthy who allegedly took part in this elite sex trafficking ring walk away?  

OK...as the Jeffery Epstein scandal heats up so does the British press coverage of Prince Andrew's connection with the CONVICTED pedophile and registered sex offender (finally). But I'd like to know...why is Prince Harry and Meghan's vacation transport fiasco sharing front page coverage with Prince Andrew? I'm sorry, the 'alleged' accusation that Prince Andrew was a willing participant in multiple sexual liaisons with an underage woman trumps the environmental loving Sussexes flying in a private jet. The Prince Andrew story line should be upfront and center.

Also, note the page numbers for the continued coverage of these stories. Harry and Meghan pages 4-5 and Prince Andrew buried a little deeper on pages 12-15. 

Although, I can appreciate the hypocrisy surrounding these climate change activist's decision to use private jets while trying to save the climate. (they flew to both Ibiza and France this month). I question why the negative coverage focuses exclusively on the Sussexes rather than shared with the other royals. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Charles have used private jets...all are passionate environmentalists yet, Prince Harry and Meghan are the targets. Why?

And while I'm at it...on August 19th, the Daily Mail featured an article by Guy Adams. Note the language around the Prince Andrew's connection to Epstein.  

But the Prince has had a seeming blind spot for the unsavoury aspects of Epstein’s character, as their long, close relationship attests.
                                                                        ...
Andrew was dragged into Epstein’s grotty orbit during the late 1990s, apparently via his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, who became chummy with Ghislaine Maxwell, the New York-based socialite daughter of disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert.

Are you kidding me?! Epstein was a CONVICTED pedophile when they met. How is that even classified as a 'blind spot?' It's beyond bad judgement. And, I just love how apparently Prince Andrew's ex-wife Sarah Ferguson 'dragged' him into this 'grotty orbit.' COME ON people, he's a big boy. COME ON Daily Mail, you can do better than this.